Picks and Pans Review: Sightings

As novels about obsession go, this one goes whole hog. Sunny, a beautiful young California girl, is obsessed by her mother, who has disappeared on a boat in the bay where both women loved to sail. Sunny's father, a noted philosopher, is obsessed by the disappearance of Sunny's brother when he was a small child. Sunny's best friend, Chris, is obsessed by her love for Sunny's father. Sunny's friend Buster is obsessed by Sunny. Chris's evil father is obsessed by Chris. You get the picture. Early on, Sunny meets and falls in love with Masefield in Paris. He's a self-conscious clod who says he's a spy, and in one brilliant scene they meet Hemingway in a café. That's about it for literary value. Trott, author of several other books, switches the viewpoint from character to character. This is puzzling, since all of them—young and old, male or female—seem to have the same, super-cool voice. The best thing about Sightings is the jacket. The story is okay, but the cover, designed by Carin Goldberg with a painting of the heroine by Michelle Barnes, is irresistible. (Simon and Schuster, $16.95)